L.A. Welcomes President Trump ... by Marching in the Streets

Unlike in the U.S. capital, where an SUV limousine was torched, the lunchtime anti-Trump demonstration in downtown Los Angeles was peaceful. Heavy rain might have have an effect on the crowd's size. Police and organizers estimated that about 1,800 to 2,000 protesters marched in L.A. to oppose the presidency of Donald Trump.

Marchers chanted, "Education, not deportation," "My body, my choice" and "Education, not deportation." Protest signs included ones that read "Not my president" and "The system has failed us." At times, hard rain pummeled a sea of umbrellas. By the time marchers reached City Hall, about 1 p.m., the rain had subsided and hungry, soaked demonstrators headed for food trucks parked along a closed Spring Street. A Oaxacan taco truck was, of course, particularly popular.

No arrests were reported, according to Los Angeles Police Department Officer Aereon Jefferson.

Alex Nagy, a senior organizer of Food & Water Watch, part of a broad coalition of groups joining the noon-hour marches and protest outside City Hall, said the point of the action was "to basically unite against hate and Trump's agenda."

"We're recommitting to doing local organizing" in the face of a Trump administration, she said.

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Three marches in downtown fed into a gathering on the west side of City Hall. Many demonstrated under the umbrella United Against Hate, which featured a tour bus parked at the steps of City Hall. Some marched behind a flat-bed truck with a P.A. system on-board. Others walked alongside an 18-foot, inflatable facsimile of our new president holding a Ku Klux Klan hood.

Gabby Hudspeth, an organizer with the group Revolution L.A., said the balloon was a gift to the organization from a supporter. "It's a symbol," she said. "We're not going to sit and support him."

Among those groups corralling folks to march against Trump's critical stance against south-of-the-border immigrants was the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN). "We're not open to normalizing hate," said the nonprofit's executor director, Martha Arévalo.

By 3:30 p.m. most of the demonstrators had dispersed, LAPD's Jefferson said. Another protest, Women’s March of Los Angeles, could bring tens of thousands of people to Pershing Square tomorrow.

Dennis Romero is an L.A. Weekly staff writer. He formerly worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Los Angeles Times, where he participated in Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the L.A. riots. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone online, the Guardian and, as a young stringer, the New York Times.